Truth is the beginning of wisdom…

Quotes To Ponder

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse [money, bounty, assistance, gifts] from the public treasury.
- Alexis de Tocqueville

From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.
- Alexander Frazer Tytler

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Archive for the ‘Religion’ Category

Barak Obama, during his Cairo speech, said:”I know, too, that Islam has always been a part of America ‘s story.”

AN AMERICAN CITIZEN’S RESPONSE:

Dear Mr. Obama:

Were those Muslims that were in America when the Pilgrims first landed? Funny, I thought they were Native American Indians.

Were those Muslims that celebrated the first Thanksgiving Day? Sorry again, those were Pilgrims and Native American Indians.

Can you show me one Muslim signature on the United States Constitution? Declaration of Independence? Bill of Rights?

Didn’t think so.

Did Muslims fight for this country’s freedom from England? No.

Did Muslims fight during the Civil War to free the slaves in America? No, they did not. In fact, Muslims to this day are still the largest traffickers in human slavery. Your own half brother, a devout Muslim, still advocates slavery himself, even though Muslims of Arabic descent refer to black Muslims as “pug nosed slaves.” Says a lot of what the Muslim world really thinks of your family’s “rich Islamic heritage,” doesn’t it Mr. Obama?

Where were Muslims during the Civil Rights era of this country? Not present. There are no pictures or media accounts of Muslims walking side by side with Martin Luther King, Jr. or helping to advance the cause of Civil Rights.

Where were Muslims during this country’s Woman’s Suffrage era? Again, not present. In fact, devout Muslims demand that women are subservient to men in the Islamic culture. So much so, that often they are beaten for not wearing the ‘hajib’ or for talking to a man who is not a direct family member or their husband. Yep, the Muslims are all for women’s rights, aren’t they?

Where were Muslims during World War II? They were aligned with Adolf Hitler. The Muslim grand mufti himself met with Adolf Hitler, reviewed the troops and accepted support from the Nazi’s in killing Jews.

Finally, Mr. Obama, where were Muslims on Sept. 11th, 2001? If they weren’t flying planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon or a field in Pennsylvania killing nearly 3,000 people on our own soil, they were rejoicing in the Middle East. No one can dispute the pictures shown from all parts of the Muslim world celebrating on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and other cable news networks that day.

Strangely, the very “moderate” Muslims who’s asses you bent over backwards to kiss in Cairo, Egypt on June 4th were stone cold silent post 9-11. To many Americans, their silence has meant approval for the acts of that day. And THAT, Mr. Obama, is the “rich heritage” Muslims have here in America.

Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot to mention the Barbary Pirates. They were Muslim also. And now we can add November 5, 2009 – the slaughter of American soldiers at Fort Hood by a Muslim major who is a doctor and a psychiatrist who was supposed to be counseling soldiers returning from battle in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Truth, Love, and Endurance

Dr. King and Christian Activism

As Americans observe Martin Luther King Day today, I am reminded of the rich Christian tradition of activism in this country. For millions of Christians who have gone before us, activism was considered fruit of the faith. Not only was the civil-rights movement led by evangelical Christians like Dr. King, so too were campaigns for abolition and women’s suffrage heavily influenced by Christians expressing their faith.

But for much of the 20th century, Christians – especially white evangelicals – shied away from activism. Part of the reason is that from about the 1920s to the 1970s, many evangelical Christians simply withdrew from the public square. Defeats in Prohibition and the discouraging results of the Scopes trial left many evangelicals disheartened. Soon the rich activist tradition was lost or divorced from true faith.

But in the African-American community, Christian principles and hopes prodded the rise of the civil-rights movement. It was not until the ’80s with the rise of the Moral Majority, that activism began to resurface among white evangelicals. Unfortunately, as Tim Stafford notes in his new book, Shaking the System, by then, “The very idea of Christians advocating for public causes created panic among secularists and dreams of utopia (a long-lost Christian America?) among true believers.”

This is why I like Stafford’s book so much: It draws from the rich history of Christian involvement to revive that lost knowledge of what it looks like to be a Christian activist.

True Christian activism, Stafford writes, always begins with the truth. “That means,” Stafford says, that “the true activist is a witness, anxious to pass on truth to others.” This is how the abolition movement began in the United States. About 30 years before the Civil War, the truth that slavery was a sin began to break through the consciousness of more and more Americans.

Soon all activists, however, learn that not everyone can handle truth. That is why a second thing that any Christian should know about engaging the world with a Christian worldview is to expect resistance. When truth collides with the status quo, Christian activists had better know where their ultimate hope lies.

Christians must also have a strategy for shaking the system: from prayer to dialogue, from political involvement to pressure tactics such as boycotts and strikes.

But above all, like Dr. King, the activist must possess courage and an unyielding faith in the God of justice. Injustice does not loosen its grasp easily. We must be prepared for a long haul, drawing on the rich resources of community and that abiding hope and passion for truth. And we must avoid violence: in our rhetoric and our actions. As Martin Luther King reminded those who gathered at his home after it had been bombed, “Don’t get panicky. … I want you to love our enemies. Be good to them. This is what we must live by. We must meet hate with love.”

So if the life of an activist holds so much discouragement and risk, why get involved at all? Because a Christian understanding of the world compels us to combat injustice and promote truth. That is a thought worth reflecting on, when we speak of people like Martin Luther King – a man who exhibited those qualities.

Geraldo, Dr. Phil, Lindsey Graham, Evan Thomas and others … get your heads out of the sand!Stop trying to protect Islam.Shame on those trying to medicalize mass murder.Call him what he is … a terrorist … he is a coward and a murderer.Stop inventing excuses due to political correctness.Political correctness is a danger to society.

The system has bought into political correctness and the media is all too happy to applaud it … it hasn’t just killed real journalism … it has now killed real Americans!Every pontificating politically correct official, who has been too cowardly to do the right thing, should be held accountable as accomplices to those murdered!

Most of FOXNews, less Geraldo, and ABC are the only mainstream media who are actually doing their homework.Even the FBI ruled out links to terrorism right at the beginning saying they didn’t want to go down that road.

U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al-Qaida, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News, according to an ABCNews.com report.

Hasan, murderer of 13 people and wounding 29 others at Fort Hood, also worshipped at the same mosque as two of the 9/11 terrorists.According to the London Sunday Telegraph, Hasan attended services at the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Va., during 2001 at the same time as Sept. 11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hamzi and Hani Hanjour. Funeral services for Hasan’s mother also was held at that mosque. The imam at the mosque at the time Hasan attended services there was Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical cleric who has been described as a supporter of al-Qaida. A third 9/11 hijacker attended al-Awlaki’s lectures in California.Now, the FBI wants to interrogate Hasan to see if he met or knew al-Hamzi or Hanjour, reports the Telegraph.

Lieberman, senate panel chair said, “There are very, very strong warning signs here that Dr Hasan had become an Islamist extremist and, therefore, that this was a terrorist act,” he told Fox News.“If that is true, the murder of these 13 people was a terrorist act.”There will now be a senate panel probe whether the army missed warning signs that Hasan, a army psychiatrist, may have been preparing an attack.

Hasan also made a six figure salary yet lived very low key … where did his money go?Following the money will yield important results.

Radical Islam comes from Islam and nowhere else … those are the roots.There are some great Americans who are classified Muslim, that is because they are classified that from their birth heritage, but do not practice Islam to the radical extent … sort of like “Islam-lite.”

When it is all said and done, there must be a change in policies to eliminate this political “incorrectness” disguised as diversity that provides dangerous protectionism policies to specific people groups.

The UN has in front of them the Defamation of Religions Resolution which it plans to introduce later this year. Everyone should be in opposition to this resolution.

The Defamation of Religions Resolution seeks to criminalize words or actions against the religion of Islam as attacks. As incredible as it sounds, passing this resolution could allow a Christian to be persecuted under UN approval. You need to voice your protest of this resolution.

This resolution seeks to protect the Islamic religion instead of individuals who hold other religious beliefs. The result is that this resolution gives UN sanction to Muslim majority countries to persecute Christians and other religious minorities for not sharing the same beliefs as Muslims. It also provides legitimacy to these countries’ blasphemy laws which are often used to accuse, imprison, and even murder Christians.

While Defamation of Religions Resolutions have been introduced and passed in previous years, causing many Christians to lose their lives, it is up again this year for re-authorization. Policy experts at the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom believe there is an opportunity to defeat it this year.This resolution needs to be defeated as a human rights issue.

The enactment of so-called “hate crimes” legislation is a long stated objective of the homosexual agenda. It is one step closer to being law and may be voted on this week.

Senate leaders attached the hate crimes legislation to a military funding bill, knowing it would put those who oppose this dangerous bill in a precarious position, vote for giving special protections to homosexuals or vote against funding for the troops. Democratic leaders believe passing their liberal agenda takes precedence over keeping our armed services safe.

Nothing should have been allowed to be attached to such an important bill because it blackmails those who would never vote for the added bills on their own merit to vote affirmatively due to the safety of the troops.

The House already voted 281 to 146 in favor of extending special federal protection to homosexuals as part of the $680 billion Defense Authorization bill and it is now going to come up for a vote in the Senate-likely this week!

What “hate crimes” legislation does is lay the legal foundation and framework for investigating, prosecuting and persecuting pastors, business owners, and anyone else whose actions reflect their faith.

The religious liberty protections in the bill are flimsy but when Republicans attempted to strengthen them, they were voted down by Democrats.

This act would establish a new FEDERAL offense for so-called “hate crimes” and add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as protected classes. It will mandate a separate federal criminal prosecution for state offenses.

The American principles already call for equal justice under the law, not equal justice unless you happen to be homosexual or even a pedophile … then it turns into special treatment.

ALL people deserve to be protected from crime, not just certain groups, and they are with existing laws and legislation already enacted.

An excerpt from a column on 9/8/2009 Marcia titled: Here’s what I REALLY think (an open letter to liberals) …

Dear liberal neighbors, acquaintances, friends and family,

I’m a conservative. A political and social conservative. I know that some of you assume that means I’m mean-spirited, selfish, intolerant, greedy, and perhaps even evil. But before you write me off, allow me to explain what I really think. You might be surprised to find that, at least in some areas, we want the same things. We just disagree on how to get them.

I believe in limited government. While I think government has many important roles to play (most importantly providing a military to protect our country), in general I believe the less government the better. For one thing, bureaucracy too often breeds inefficiency, mediocrity, or even worse by not rewarding performance. Anyone who’s been to his local Department of Motor Vehicles, or his post office for that matter, can attest to that. But even if government bureaucracies worked perfectly, why would I (or anyone, for that matter) want to be subject to any more laws and regulations than I already am? I believe I’m better at running my life than my congressman is.

As a believer in small government, it follows that I want my taxes to be as low as possible. I prefer to spend my own money as I choose, not because I’m greedy, but because I’ll spend it more wisely and carefully because I earned it. Government waste is a given. And while I do believe the government should help the neediest among us, welfare states simply do not work. Bill Clinton knew that well enough to act on it. I believe individuals should be encouraged to be as charitable and generous as possible. (As a Christian, I believe it’s my responsibility to help take care of people in need.) But I also believe individuals fare better when they take responsibility for their own lives. Dignity comes from taking responsibility, not handouts – and dignity breeds motivation. George Will summed it up nicely when he wrote that “excessively benevolent government is not a benefactor.” I believe in equal opportunity, but I don’t believe that equal outcomes can (or should) be mandated.

I believe in personal freedom. The less government bureaucrats have to say about my personal life, the better. Naturally we’re all subject to the laws of the land, but it’s another thing entirely to have my family’s healthcare run by committee, for example. Having lived through a few years without employer-provided health insurance, I know how tough that is. I’d still prefer that to the British system in which my brother had to wait three months for an MRI to determine what a doctor here diagnosed by my description alone: that he’d suffered a stroke at the age of 38. Guaranteed healthcare doesn’t mean much when it’s dangerously slow and just plain lousy.

Most public school systems are sad but perfect examples of how tax-supported bureaucracies simply don’t work. As a conservative, I believe in school choice. Not only would individual students benefit, it would inspire healthy competition and remind administrators that they are answerable to parents.

I am also a social conservative. I believe in traditional Judeo-Christian values, and want the freedom to continue to worship as a Christian. I also want the right to raise my children with those values. I don’t want my children taught that the practice of homosexuality is right any more than my liberal neighbors want their children taught that it’s wrong. Liberals who wouldn’t want their children taught Christian precepts in school should be able to understand why conservative Christians don’t want their children taught un-Christian precepts. In fact, if public schools focused on academics and left social and moral issues to parents, we’d all be better off. Social change dreamed up and forced on society, including children, by a few Washington insiders is a truly frightening prospect. Too much power in the hands of a small group of any persuasion is a dangerous thing.

In a nutshell, I’m for limited government that acts to preserve opportunity and encourage personal responsibility. I’m for small government that allows me the freedom to believe what I choose to believe, and raise my children accordingly. I believe it’s my duty to help people in need, and that while government has a role to play in that regard, it is among the least capable of institutions to do so with positive long-term outcomes.

Ronald Reagan captured the conservative ethos in another quote from that famous 1964 speech: “[Y]ou and I have the ability and the dignity and the right to make our own decisions and determine our own destiny.”

F o r m e r C o m m u n i s t

Barack Obama and the socialist leadership in Congress are working furiously to change America! They want to transform our nation and they’re spending trillions of tax dollars to do it.

I am not talking about the type of misery Jimmy Carter inflicted on our nation. Conservatives were able to reverse the course Carter had put us on. But what we’re seeing today isn’t like anything you and I have ever seen! I’m talking about a whole scale, radical transformation of our nation. From our national defense to our foreign policy to our free market economic system. Obama and company have implemented and have plans to further implement massive government control over each of us.

Americans – your friends and neighbors – do not fully realize the radical changes Barack Obama and the socialists in Congress are foisting upon our way of life!

But you do. And I do as well. Today the Obamaites, George Soros, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Rahm Emanuel, Harry Reid – the small but powerful group of left-wing radicals who are at the controls of this transformation are all disciples of the 1960s radical Saul Alinsky. Alinsky’s book, Rules for Radicals, was the Little Red Book for the college radicals of the 1960s. I know, I was one of them.

I understand better than most Alinsky’s deep, deep hatred of America. A hate that ran so deep he wrote a blueprint for tearing our nation down. And while I outgrew and repented my anti-Americanism and came to see how great and generous our country is, many agents of the radical left never grew up. In fact, today many of them are leaders in Congress and in our White House, all embracing Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals – the road map for turning our nation upside down.

With every passing day we see what lays behind the Administration’s piecemeal efforts to take over the car makers, the banks and the health care system: creating a new America that will bear little resemblance to the country in which we grew up. You and I must counter this. The Freedom Center willingly takes on the Paul Revere role. We have a massive media blitz planned detailing precisely the radical transformation we’re undergoing.

I am writing a new booklet that I must blanket on college campuses as the new school year starts. This booklet – “Alinsky’s Rules for Obama’s Radicalism” – paints a clear picture of Barack Obama’s agenda for our nation. And we have prepared an advertisement to run in papers around the country calling on Americans to derail this train before it’s too late.

P.S. The idea that the disciples of Saul Alinsky – a man who so hated America he detailed a plan to tear it apart – are running our nation is hard to swallow. But the facts bear it out. Stand with me and the Freedom Center as we ride like Paul Revere across the nation and sound the alarm!

The “remaking” of America continues at breakneck speed. The man who occupies the Oval Office has made an appeal to the American people that the time for discussion is over and that socialized medicine in the form of so-called healthcare reform must be passed now. He said, “This is a problem we can no longer wait to fix. Deferring reform is nothing more than defending the status quo – and those who would oppose our efforts should take a hard look at just what it is they’re defending.” Of course, there have been several news stories that the 1,018 page healthcare legislation has not even been read by the Congressmen who will vote on it.

If people would read the healthcare bills before Congress they would be astonished. The legislation mandates the use of taxpayer money to fund abortions. The legislation calls for a government tribunal of political appointees – not even elected officials – to determine who receives healthcare and under what conditions. This healthcare reform is tantamount to euthanasia for senior citizens. Obama told ABC News on June 24th that older people who didn’t have much longer to live were maybe “better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller.” Meaning that if you are no longer productive to society – translated, paying taxes – the government will decide you cannot receive life-prolonging treatment.

However that’s not all the government will control with this brand of healthcare reform. Page 16 of the healthcare bill specifically outlaws individual private coverage. In other words, you will not be able to buy insurance apart from a government-approved plan. Indeed, if you do not want to participate in socialized medicine, you have no choice … no matter what Obama and others say with their mouths! The IRS will have authority to fine you thousands of dollars a year if you cannot prove you are insured by a government approved plan. Small businesses will be required to provide the government health insurance at a tremendous cost, resulting in price increases on goods or closing the doors at unprecedented job losses.

Killing the pre-born; euthanizing the elderly; government appointed tribunals determining healthcare (referred to as the death panels); forcing government healthcare upon reluctant citizens; destroying jobs and causing inflation – these are just a few of the results of HR 3200 – America’s Affordable Health Choice Act of 2009. Ironically the American people, and those in health care professions, will have no choice … the American people in their health choices, and the health care providers in their moral and ethical choices.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:13, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”This healthcare bill is immoral and Christians have a directive to stand for righteousness and morality. Let us speak boldly to all who will lend an ear, and after having done that … stand!

Senators on Capitol Hill may be forced tomorrow to make a choice between approving an important defense spending bill and voting down “hate crimes” legislation. Senate Democrats are once again trying to pass a hate crimes bill by attaching it as an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill.

The hate crimes legislation, known as the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act (S. 909), would add gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability to the list of protected categories under federal hate crimes law. A vote is expected Thursday on the Defense Authorization bill and its accompanying hate crimes amendment.

Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr., chairman of the High Impact Leadership Coalition, warns the hate crimes measure will lead to more than just the prosecution of violent crimes that are deemed bias-related.

“The problem is that the way that they define violence has to do with name-calling, but has to do with an array of different things,” he explains. “And the ultimate issue is going to be that it only takes one or two lawsuits, or the threat of a lawsuit, for there to be a chilling effect on pastors from preaching these passages of the Bible like Leviticus and Romans 1, and many, many other passages as our culture slips more into darkness.”

Those scriptural passages address homosexual acts, which the Bible says God considers to be an abomination.

Jackson and other conservative activists are hoping to persuade a group of about 14 moderate senators to oppose the bill. They include Arkansas Democrats Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu, and Republicans John McCain (Arizona) Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) and Judd Gregg (New Hampshire).

It is immoral for these kinds of antics and coercion to have to be endured.Each bill should be going though by itself, not piggybacked, and rise or fall on its own merit or lack thereof!

As usual The New York Times passed on the opportunity to publish a great op-ed letter to President Barack Obama from Lou Pritchett, a former vice president of Procter & Gamble. Pritchett worked for that company for 36 years, until his retirement in 1989.

Confirmed by the Internet watchdog Snopes, here’s a sample of what Pritchett wrote:

Dear President Obama:

You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me. …

You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll. …

You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.

You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the ‘blame America’ crowd and deliver this message abroad.

You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.

You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.

You scare me because you prefer ‘wind mills’ to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves. …

You scare me because you have begun to use ‘extortion’ tactics against certain banks and corporations.

You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals. …

You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.

You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O’Reillys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.

You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.

Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.

Lou Pritchett

Thank you, Mr. Pritchett, for your love for America, honesty and willingness to risk your reputation by speaking up to this administration.

Here are some more . . .

President Obama:

You scare me because so many amazing corporate and American leaders, such as Lou Pritchett, are saying you scare them.

You scare me because after you initiate more government borrowing and bailouts than all presidents combined, you then require Congress to follow a system that is “pay-as-you-go.”

You scare me because you really do believe that going into massive amounts of debt can remedy our economy in the long run.

You scare me because you buy and run the banking, automobile and (soon) health industries with taxpayers’ money but refuse to call it socialism.

You scare me because you claim to be a fighter for minorities and the promises of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness yet do not defend the unborn. What greater minority is there than those in the womb, against whom you already have enacted more pro-abortion laws than anyone since the Roe v. Wade decision?

You scare me because you promise to defend the U.S. against all potential enemies yet pacify those harboring terrorists, fight for the rights of combative detainees, and enable the enemies of Israel.

You scare me because your media team (including the mainstream media) seeks to label as radical or in some way penalize any opposing conservative voices … such as conservative talk show hosts, news agencies, columnists and actors.

You scare me because your media team does not address or diminish in any way your deification before the world, epitomized by the editor of Newsweek who stated on Chris Matthews’ MSNBC show: “In a way, Obama’s standing above the country, above the world. He’s sort of God.” (How much scarier can it get than representative statements like that in a republic that once stood for a balance among political powers and a government “by the people, for the people”?)